Housesitting in the Peak District

Snoozy Brian and Monty cat chilling out

Our first Housesit is nearly over, it’s been for three very fluffy cats between Uttoxeter and Ashbourne, on the road to Alton Towers. We’ve had Monty, a Norwegian Forest Cat who has loved us from arrival, Lucia a black, long haired, moggie who comes and goes, but now shouts to let us know she’s back and demand strokes and fuss, and Stripes a Maine Coon, very shy, but having strokes now and then when he comes home. At least we’ve seen him every day which is better than the first Housesitters apparently who didn’t see him at all for two days. Just as we are settling in, it’s all going to be over, but that’s how it is when the homeowner has children so can only go away for half term week.

A rare photo of all three pussy cats together, black Lucia on the left, Monty (I think) middle and Stripes on the window shelf (those two look quite similar but are completely different breeds)

Milk shakes at the busy Ramblers Retreat

We arrived on Sunday to meet Darren and daughter Molly who gave us a good rundown of the house and local walks, so with fab weather forecast all week we set off on the first one on Monday morning, straight from the front door onto an old railway, now cycle path. I do like a walk that starts from the house. We were aiming for the Ramblers Retreat, but so it would appear was half of Derbyshire, fortunately we weren’t starving so a milkshake from the ice cream bar was yummy.

The chained oak. Not sure how easily you can see the chains, you might have to click on the photo and zoom in. There is a chain in evidence between the second and third branches from the left, quite high up in the canopy you might be able to see. The fallen branch on the ground on the left has a chain embedded beneath the bark. It's a very old oak tree and some of the branches look quite dead and only held aloft by the chains. I believe four relatives of the Earl of Shrewsbury died roughly corresponding to four branches falling from the tree (legend would have it), before he took the curse seriously and chained it up

Chilling out in their lovely garden

We’d stopped en-route to visit the chained oak (or hex tree, as it’s called on the ride named after it at the nearby Alton Towers. So near you could hear the squeals), so called because the Earl of Shrewsbury upset a beggar woman who cursed him, saying that every time a branch fell off a member of his family would die. This appeared to come true so he had the tree wrapped in chains to prevent any more branches falling off!

A five mile walk while Jackie was away to a local hill with a trig point

Outdoor breakfast in the heat every day here

Tuesday I had to go back to mum, she had an appointment to have more vision tests, and then possibly to have laser treatment. Fortunately I’d managed to bring my second Covid jab forward to the previous Tuesday or I’d have been up and down on Monday as well as Tuesday! Her appointment wasn’t till 7pm, the quirks of going private. His tests revealed long standing damage from previous problems when I was at school, so nothing to be done for that, but also a thickening of the lense from her cataract surgery 10 or so years ago. He did get his laser out to remove some of that, but sadly with the long term damage, and the ‘floaters’ caused by the laser there was no eureka moment. We are still hoping that when the floaters stop floating and new glasses are purchased there will be an improvement.

This was our first walk along the old Churnet Valley Railway, now a cycle way and this is just emerging through a bridge to the old railway station of Alton (a short way from Alton Towers), which is now holiday cottages 

Looking down into Lathkil Dale...

I came back to the Housesit on Wednesday, having left Brian ‘home alone’ not only to care for the cats, and cook his own dinner, but also to operate the TV/Sky/Netflix/catch up.....all things he usually leaves to me! He seems to have survived! As did I, having to drive the hour and a half each way, things I usually leave to him!

Where we met up with old friends Tim and Jill, with Ruby dog. We've known them for nearly 30 years and have housesat for them in their lovely house just south of Derby several times. It was two years ago whilst housesitting for them that our old car blew up in Ashbourne. We were on our way with Ruby dog to a walk outside Ashbourne when it died, we had to leave it there, get a taxi, hire a car and then search for another car. Ruby dog was superb throughout and was a real therapy dog! 

A photo of Tim taking a photo!

Thursday we drove to Lathkil Dale to meet Tim and Jill from nearby Derby. We had a lovely walk with them and Ruby dog along the river and back to the Lathkil hotel for lunch. We did meet Henry (6 or 7 ish) and his mum and dog along the way. He was a lovely lad, not scared of talking to strangers, though obviously mum was there, but it was still a very pleasant surprise when his little arm snaked out around my waist. The other grownups had told him that he couldn’t go through the gate and down the very steep ladder of the mine shaft. He was very keen though so with me a step below and Brian above we escorted him down to where he could see further down the mine shaft as we cranked the handle, that powered the dynamo, that lit the lights. He wasn’t as excited as I expected him to be that he’d made electricity, but he was appreciative that we’d taken him “I could fall down here and really hurt myself” he’d realised on the way down. “That’s why I’m here to catch you” I said, seemed to reassure him!

Going down the mine! Below is 6 or 7 year old Henry and below him Jackie, making sure he's safe. Mum meanwhile was unconcerned, chatting to Jill. Ruby dog was wondering where we were going while Tim took the photo

Another gentle walk on Friday along the Churnett canal (well it has been very hot) before a walk round Ashbourne today. Tomorrow we clean and pack up before heading to Lymm outside Manchester for a night in a pub before our next sit starts on Monday.

Don't get many photos of the two of us, so here's one looking romantically into each others eyes!

Drinks and lunch afterwards at the Lathkil Hotel. A great way to end a splendid walk and day!

This is a large house that has been extended and this is a huge dining area with large kitchen behind and massive sliding doors opening onto the garden. Our room is up those few steps there into an self contained annex that they've just converted and will rent out on Airbnb. It's fabulous in there with it's own entrance, kitchenette, bathroom, patio doors and outside sitting area. Normally the door there would be locked, but we use it to access the rest of the house to look after the cats. The dark round circle in the floor is an old well that they covered with a thick sheet of glass. It's 4.5m deep apparently, the glass is strong enough to stand on, but it does feel weird to do so...

Looking down the well. You can't see much because of the reflection, but you can see plants growing out of the walls. Apparently Darren went down there during the build, cleaned it all and fitted some blue lights down there. The lights failed after a month and all those plants have grown since

Brian working on the blog at the dining table next to a sleeping, chilled out Monty cat

Monty cat likes to bounce Lucia cat and here he is preparing to pounce. Lucia seems to like it and they end up rolling around together and then Lucia dashing off with Monty is quick pursuit 

Lucia cat

And very shy Stripes cat

Lucia cat on the sofa in the lounge demanding strokes from Jackie

Our walk from Froghall to the Black Lion pub along a very picturesque canal. This is Hettys tea room at the start

This is Froghall tunnel, long enough, but not too long, but the roof is quite low. On one of the locks higher up is a profile of the tunnel hanging overhead with a notice advising boat users that if they can't get under the profile, they won't get through this tunnel 

The crossover bridge where the towpath crosses from this side to the other. Nice reflection in the water. I like to think of this as art!

This is the privately owned Churnet Valley steam railway, it runs next to the canal for most of the way and, when this train went past Jackie waved and she got a special toot from the driver. But look at the scenery, it's just beautiful and it was like this most of thee way. It almost looks like we're in the tropics - the heat of the day helped with this illusion too! It's actually the same track that we took a couple of days earlier from the house in Denstone. The part of the track we walked on had the railway removed, but this part, further up was retained

This is one of several overflow weirs allowing excess water to run from the canal down to the Churnet river below

There's the steam train in the station at Corsall. See how the waiting room at the station overhangs the canal

And there it is going over the canal bridge at the Black Lion pub. That's as far as we walked, we didn't even have a beer at the pub, despite it's scenic location. It was just on midday, we'd got a long walk back, weren't too hungry and didn't want to feel tired. Not only that, but it was 'Fizz Friday' and we had a bottle of pink sparkling wine chilling in the fridge for when we got back! Incidentally, here's the power of just talking to people, just after we set off back we passed a 73 year old chap with a lovely little dog. After stroking his dog we got chatting to him and, during the conversation he told us that it was his mum's funeral yesterday, she was a couple of days short of her 93rd birthday. We had a long chat about her and her life and it seemed to do him a power of good to talk it through. You never know what problems people are carrying when you pass them! 

No idea what flowers these are, but they were growing alongside the towpath in a wood and I liked the look of them

Well, we've had a lovely time here looking after these pussy cats and exploring locally, I think we're going to miss them all!